Wireless networks can be ad-hoc, or have an infrastructure that includes a wireless station, called an access point (AP), through which all other wireless stations, also called client stations, communicate. Such infrastructure networks are now in common use, e.g. as wireless local area networks (WLANs). For example, the IEEE 802.11 standard in all its variations, herein referred to as 802.11, is now in common use for WLANs. 802.11 defines an infrastructure network having an AP through which all other client stations of the same infrastructure network, also called a basic service set (BSS), communicate.
Home or Small Office or Home Office (SOHO) users are able to implement WLANs within their existing computer infrastructure by installing and configuring commonly available wireless devices. Devices such as wireless adapter cards can convert desktop computers or portable computers into wireless stations. Other wireless, devices are themselves wireless stations, such as standalone APs in the case of 802.11.
Such wireless devices are commonly available and are relatively straightforward to install. Configuring the devices, however, is not so simple. Many home or SOHO users find configuring wireless stations to be a frustrating and difficult experience. Configuration parameters must be set before a client station or an AP can function properly on a WLAN. Configuration parameters for a client station include parameters detailing which protocol and transmission mechanism to use, a station's host address, available services on the network, etc.
There are existing methods that can provide configuration parameters to a client station, even with limited or no user intervention. However, some most important and fundamental parameters to WLAN communication, and commonly ones that one must be set manually, are security parameters such as security keys. It is the security key that is difficult for home or SOHO to configure on wireless stations.
WLANs typically provide one or more security mechanisms to limit the vulnerability of eavesdropping, unauthorized use and/or potentially malicious activity. In the case of the IEEE 802.11 family of protocols, several such security methods exist. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption is a commonly used method for 802.11 WLANs to provide client station authorization and point-to-point encryption between the client station and the AP. To enable this feature, an AP generates a security key, also called a WEP key, that must be provided to a client station. For each client station that is to use WEP encryption, a user reads up to 104 characters provided by the AP, and then enters these characters into the client station. As additional client stations are added to the WLAN, the user must repeat this process for each client station.
Wireless security mechanisms, in general, require at least one configuration parameter, e.g. a security key, that is to be transferred from one wireless station to another wireless station. The security key must not be communicated openly such that it can be eavesdropped, lest the security mechanism be rendered ineffectual. But it is the step of transferring the security key from one wireless station to another that many home or SOHO users find unacceptable—too difficult and/or too cumbersome—to perform regularly. As a consequence, many home and SOHO users today do not enable wireless security mechanisms, leaving their WLANs particularly vulnerable to eavesdropping and unauthorized use.
Thus there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus that can provide one or more configuration parameters to wireless stations on a WLAN with little or no user-intervention.